Fetching
One moment.
Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
1perce au travers des essences de l'aslringenledurefé comme un éclair rapide , et s'aiguise dans l'astringente dureté, de façon qu'il devient blanc comme un éclair de feu : il brise , dans son cours rapide , rastring*;nce ténébreuse où se trouve l'âpre té et l'asIringence de la mort. Il est comme une roue tournante et brisante qui, dans l'éclair du brisement , va aussi vite qu'une pensée ; c'est avec cette même rapidité que sa volonté reconçue , qui est la bas3 affective, seconlemple : or, comme elle ne peut pas s'envoler devant soi hors des essences, alors elle doit aller dans la roue tournante ; car elle ne peut sortir de la place , et elle brise les ténèbres. Quand elle brise ainsi les ténèbres , le coup d'oeil aigu se contemple dans d'aimables délices , hors des ténèbres , dans l'aigu de la volonté ; savoir : dans là base affective, et se trouve disposé à habiter en elle r c'est ce dont l'éclair s'étonne , et il s'élève par une grande puissance hors du cœur , au travers des esr sences brisées : il veut se porter vers la bouche , et tend à s'en aller loin du cœur 5 il est toutefois retenu par l'astringent fiât qui lui fait une région parliculière j savoir : la langue , dans laquelle est l'explosion des essences brisées : alors il se contemplé de nouveau en arrière,dans le cœur ou dans sa première demeure 5 il la trouve délicieuse et lumineuse, eu ce que les portes des ténèbres sont brisées ; alors il s'enflamme très ardemment pour la douceur, dans la volonté de l'amour, et il nesori plus au travers de toutes les essences en un éclair colérique , mais tressaillant dans une grande joie. ii ( 3i2 ) ctt. i5j
2Or , la puissance de la joie es! maintenant mille fois plus forte que n'éloit premièrement l'ëclair qui s'élança au travers des âpres et astringentes essences de la mort, et qui passe du cœur dans la tête avec une grande puissance , dans l'intention de posséder la région céleste. 44. Car 5 la puissance de la joie est le paradis , et elle a sa racine la plusiulérieure, là où Adam , dans le péché, mourut de la première mort; là où alors 13ieu dit : La semence de la femme doit briser la tête du serpent. Cette même parole se représenta dans Adam dans le centre de l'ascension de sa vie ; de-là par la création d'Eve , dans l'ascension de sa vie-, et de-là dans tous les hommes, de façon que nous pouvons y dans la ferme résolution de notre ame , briser la tête et la volonté du serpent par la parole et la puissance de Dieu , au nom du briseur de serpent , qui s'est fait homme dans le tems ; et si celte puissance ne s'étoit pas trouvée à cette place , alors jious serions demeurés dans l'éternelle mort. Ainsi la base affective est à elle-même et dans la volonté libre ; elle nage dans la puissance de Dieu , et dans sa promesse , comme un être libre. 45. Ainsi donc quand l'explosion joyeuse dans la puissance de Dieu qui a brisé les portes de la profondeur ténébreuse , s'élève dans le cœur , et s'introduit avec l'éclair , dans la tête ; alors la puissance de la joie se place en haut comme la plus forte , et l'éclair en bas comme étant le plus foible ; et quand l'éclair vient à son siège dans la tête , il se fait deux portes ouvertes j car il a brisé les portes de la proCH. i5. ( 3i3 )
3fondeur ténébreuse ; c'est pourquoi il ne demeure plus dans les ténèbres , mais il doit être libre comme un conquérant, et ne pas se laisser emprisonner ; il nous figure le Christ ressuscité des morts , lequel maintenant est libre , et ne se laisse arrêter par rien , ce qui sera profondément traité en son lieu. Or, ces mêmes portes que l'éclair tient ouvertes, sont les jeux 5 et leur raoine est l'esprit de joie qui s'élève en premier lieu dans V enjlammement de la vie. 46. Si donc la forte volonté reconçue désire ainsi de s'envoler des ténèbres , et d'être dans la lumière qui est engendrée dans le cœur , nous ne pouvons reconnoître là autre chose si ce n'est la noble vierge de la sagesse de Dieu , ou la sophie qui s'élève ainsi dans la joie , et se marie dans le commencement avec l'esprit de l'ame 5 qui lui aide à parvenir la lumière; qui, après l'ascension de l'ame (c'est-àdire , après Venflammemènt de la puissance du soleil dans les essences ) , se place dans son centre paradisiaque , et avertit continuellement l'ame de ses voies impies , lesquelles lui sont représentées et apportées dans les essences par les étoiles et les élémens. C'est pourquoi la vierge ou sophie a son trône dans le cœur et aussi dans la tête , pour qu'elle puisse par-tout les défendre et les préserver de l'ame [ ou de la racine de feu ] . 47. Il faut en outre réfliéchir que lorsque l'explosion ou la terreur a, fait sa maison , dans sa forte déchirurejhors desportes de l'angoisse ténébreuse qui sont la langue, cette explosion ou cette terreur y |i t) ( 114 î CH. T^t
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1pierces through the essences of the astringent hardness like a rapid flash, and sharpens itself in the astringent hardness, so that it becomes white as a flash of fire: it breaks, in its rapid course, the tenebrous astringency where are found the harshness and the astringency of the death. It is as a turning and breaking wheel which, in the flash of the breaking, goes as fast as a thought; it is with this same rapidity that its reconceived will, which is the bas3e affective, contemplates itself: now, as it cannot fly away before itself out of the essences, then it must go into the turning wheel; for it cannot go forth from the place, and it breaks the darknesses. When it breaks thus the darknesses, the sharp glance contemplates itself in amiable delights, out of the darknesses, in the sharp of the will; to wit: in the affective base, and finds itself disposed to dwell therein: it is whereat the flash is astonished, and it rises by a great power out of the heart, through the broken essences: it will carry itself toward the mouth, and tends to go away far from the heart 5 it is nevertheless retained by the astringent fiat which makes for it a particular region; to wit: the tongue, in which is the explosion of the broken essences: then it contemplates itself anew backward, in the heart or in its first dwelling 5 it finds it delicious and luminous, in that the gates of the darknesses are broken; then it kindles itself very ardently for the sweetness, in the will of the love, and it goes no more through all the essences in a choleric flash, but thrilling in a great joy. ii ( 3i2 ) ctt. i5j
2Now, the power of the joy is now a thousand times stronger than was firstly the flash which darted through the harsh and astringent essences of the death, and which passes from the heart into the head with a great power, in the intention of possessing the celestial region. 44. For 5 the power of the joy is paradise, and it has its most interior root, there where Adam, in the sin, died of the first death; there where then 13God said: The seed of the woman must break the head of the serpent. This same word represented itself in Adam in the centre of the ascension of his life; thence by the creation of Eve, in the ascension of her life; and thence in all men, so that we can, in the firm resolution of our soul, break the head and the will of the serpent by the word and the power of God, in the name of the bruiser of the serpent, who has made himself man in the time; and if this power had not been found in this place, then we should have remained in the eternal death. Thus the affective base is to itself and in the free will; it swims in the power of God, and in his promise, as a free being. 45. Thus then when the joyous explosion in the power of God which has broken the gates of the tenebrous profundity, rises in the heart, and introduces itself with the flash, into the head; then the power of the joy places itself above as the strongest, and the flash below as being the feeblest; and when the flash comes to its seat in the head, it makes for itself two open gates; for it has broken the gates of the proCH. i5. ( 3i3 )
3fundity tenebrous; that is why it dwells no more in the darknesses, but it must be free as a conqueror, and not let itself be imprisoned; it figures for us the Christ risen from the dead, who now is free, and lets himself be stopped by nothing, which will be profoundly treated in its place. Now, these same gates that the flash holds open, are the eyes 5 and their root is the spirit of joy which rises in the first place in the inflaming of the life. 46. If then the strong reconceived will desires thus to fly away from the darknesses, and to be in the light which is begotten in the heart, we cannot recognise there anything else save the noble virgin of the wisdom of God, or the Sophia who rises thus in the joy, and marries herself in the beginning with the spirit of the soul 5 who helps it to attain the light; who, after the ascension of the soul ( that is to say, after the inflaming of the power of the sun in the essences ), places herself in her paradisiacal centre, and warns continually the soul of its impious ways, which are represented and brought to it in the essences by the stars and the elements. That is why the virgin or Sophia has her throne in the heart and also in the head, so that she may everywhere defend them and preserve them from the soul [ or from the root of fire ] . 47. It must besides be reflected that when the explosion or the terror has made its house, in its strong rending, out of the gates of the tenebrous anguish which are the tongue, this explosion or this terror |i t) ( 114 î CH. T^t
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
Saint-Martin's French rendering of Boehme's 'Von den drei Principien göttlichen Wesens'. The same work stands in this estate in English as boehme:2. The title page also advertises 'L'Aurore naissante, du même Auteur' from the same booksellers — Saint-Martin's translation of the Aurora, whose English counterpart the estate holds as boehme:1. Reading the two versions against each other shows what a Martinist made of a German shoemaker's theosophy.
→ boehme:2
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.